Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Patagonia- Punta Arenas - Chile

From Pucon we got a bus further south to Puerto Montt which is basically the end of Chile before it breaks up into islands. The only way to get further south into Chilean Patagonia is by taking a three day ferry or by plane (or entering from Argentina), so we arranged the first flight of our trip to go to Punta Arenas.

Dinner in Puerto Montt was delicious Chilean fare...Chupe de Mariscos... shellfish in a buttery breadcrumb sauce with cheese on top. Yum.

It was followed by a peachy dessert: tinned fruit seems to be a popular dessert in Chile.

Shiny new Puerto Montt airport.

Punta Arenas is on the Strait of Magellan which looked very cold and menacing. The town had a real end of the world feel which was fun but it was really cold and windy so we were happy enough not to stay too long...

Our hostel in Punta Arenas...

Japanese tourists taking turns to be photographed in front of the statue of Ferdinand Magellan in the main square...

Punta Arenas is one of the main gateways to the Antarctic and there were lots of research crews from all over the world around the town...including the Polish and Swedish Antarctica research teams. Here is the Instituto Antarctico Chileno...

Caldillo de Mariscos: Shellfish in Chile seem to be about four times bigger than anything you get at home, it's very off-putting when you see what they actually look like in big size.

Plastic money with a see-through bit.

Our main reason for going to Punta Arenas, apart from it having an airport for cheap flights, was to see the colony of Magellanic penguins. So, on an unbelievably windy evening, we headed to the Otway Sound, unfortunately missing the hatching of the babies by about two weeks. But, it was a really strange and interesting place.

Not only did we get to see the penguins, in a setting that looked strangely similar to the west of Ireland, but right beside them we saw grazing sheep, lakes with flamingos, two skunks and some nandu or 'rhea'...

The penguins live in little burrows near the sea and walk back and forth for feeding. Apparently each penguin has a defined path which he always uses. Here's one stretching outside the nest...

Grooming is one of the most time consuming activities for these penguins...

From Punta Arenas we got a bus to Puerto Natales, out the bus window we saw some really weird cloud formations, that are caused by strong Patagonian winds, I think...

The little cloud here in the middle was luminiscent green, it was mad looking, was trying to find out why, I think it's because of ice content reflecting the light strangely.

Sunset was really slow and took place over about five hours, it was still a little bit bright at about eleven when we arrived into Puerto Natales.